Last night my husband and I dined at Cinco. This restaurant has 4 locations around the Atlanta area. We dined at the Akers Mill Road location. The atmosphere of this restaurant inside was really nice. I really liked the decor and there is dining available on the rooftop too. I did some research ahead of time and found out the that chips, salsa, salads and tacos requested using corn tortillas were gluten-free. While I was there I asked if the braised beef enchiladas were made with corn tortillas and I was told they were so I order that and a Cinco Margarita. They make the margaritas pretty strong, but I enjoyed it. The salsa served with the chips was smoky and had just enough kick that you could feel it, but not too potent. We ordered guacamole to start and that arrived late…..about 2 minutes before our entrees. The service at this location is just plain slow. We were scheduled to see a show after dinner so I had to be forceful in asking where our guacamole was and in requesting the check.

The guacamole was okay. It could have used some salt. As a matter of fact, many items could have used some salt in my opinion and there are no salt and pepper shakers on the table. The enchiladas were pretty good. I enjoyed the meat, but I would’ve liked to have seen a little more sauce on the plate. They were served with black beans and jalepeno corn. I can attest to the fact that the corn was fresh since I found a few corn silks on my plate. The beans could have used more seasoning.

All in all I think this restaurant was an experience that just lacked a little more flavor.

Good news! Apparently Johnny’s New York Style Pizza is now carrying gluten-free 10″ pizzas at a cost of $8.99. Bad news is this is only happening at “participating” locations. After talking to one of the restaurant managers I found out it is up to each restaurant owner as to whether they will carry the gluten-free crust or not.

I called a few of the restaurants located near my office and my home and this was the result:

They do warn on their website that a small amount of cross contamination can occur in a flour rich environment so if a small amount of gluten can be harmful to you they recommend that you avoid this product.

Has anyone tried this crust yet and if so what was your opinion of the taste/quality and cross contamination?

I was invited to go to dinner recently with some old work colleagues and Romano‘s was chosen as the restaurant. We chose the Ashford Dunwoody location. My first thought was….I guess I’ll be ordering a salad…again. I reviewed their allergen menu online and thought my eyes were deceiving me when I see gluten-freepenne listed. YAHOO!

Once we got to the restaurant I decided to order the Penne Rustica and stated that I needed to have the gluten-free pasta to our waiter. His reply to me was “That is going to take a lot longer to cook.” What kind of a response is that? I told me that I was fine with that. I had my heart set on pasta so my mind was made up. They brought the lovely little loaf of bread to the table with the olive oil to dip it in. I knew that I couldn’t dive into that, but I was content in knowing that I was going to eat penne pasta in a cream sauce with roasted chicken and shrimp…..yum!

Once they brought my entree I requested some fresh parmesan cheese grated on top and then I dove in. I didn’t take a photo of the dish for fear that my old co-workers would think I was a dork when I told them “I need this pic for my blog.” Overall the dish was decent. I got one piece of chicken that had some grisly stuff on it and only got 2 shrimp in the entire dish, but I was still happy that I was eating PASTA and not eating rabbit food.